The fate of several Union ministers including Radha Mohan Singh, Harshvardhan and Maneka Gandhi, SP chief AkhileshYadav and Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and JyotiradityaScindia will be decided Sunday in the sixth and penultimate phase of LokSabha polls to be held in 59 constituencies in six states and Delhi.
Elections will be held in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10seats in Haryana, eights constituencies each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and WestBengal, seven seats in Delhi and four in Jharkhand.
Over 10.17 crore voters are eligible to exercise theirfranchise to choose among the 979 candidates in fray. The Election Commissionhas set up over 1.13 lakh polling stations for smooth conduct of polls.
The elections in this phase are seen as a big test for theBJP which had won 45 of these seats in 2014, with the Trinamool Congressbagging 8, the Congress two and the Samajwadi Party and the LJP one seat eachamong others.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP had won 13 of the 14constituencies in 2014, the only exception being Azamgarh, won then by SPfounder Mulayam Singh Yadav.
However, the BJP had to face defeat in the bypolls inPhulpur and Gorakhpur constituencies last year. While, the anti-BJP alliancewould like to retain its grip over both the seats, the saffron party is lookingto wrest them from the opposition.
Their importance can be gauged from the fact that Gorakhpurwas represented by Yogi Adityanath in LokSabha from 1998 to 2017, before hebecame the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Similarly, Phulpur was won for the first time by the BJP in2014, when Keshav Prasad Maurya emerged victorious from the seat oncerepresented by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister. Maurya vacatedthe seat after he became the deputy chief minister of the state in 2017.
In Azamgarh this time, Akhilesh is trying to retain hisfather’s seat against Bhojpuri film star Dinesh LalYadav ‘Nirahua’ of the BJP.
Sultanpur too is seeing an interesting contest as the BJPhas fielded Union ministerManeka Gandhi for the seat won by her son Varun in2014.
The seats appears tricky for Maneka as BJP strategists arerelying on a division of Congress and gathbandhan votes, besides possiblecounter-polarisation of non-Yadav and non-Jatav Dalit and OBC votes.
Polling will also be held for Bhopal, Morena, Bhind (SC),Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Vidisha and Rajgarh seats in Madhya Pradesh. This will bethe third phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh, with the first and second phaseshaving been held on April 29 and May 6. The last phase will be held on May 19.
The Bhopal seat will see an interesting fight between seniorCongress leader Digvijay Singh and BJP nominee Pragya Singh Thakur.
Guna will seal the fate of AICC general secretary andCongress candidate Scindia. Union minister and BJP nominee Narendra Singh Tomaris in the fray from Morena.
In the national capital, voting will be held in all theseven seats. As many as 164 candidates, including 18 women, are in the fray.
It is expected to be three-cornered fight involving the BJP,AAP and the Congress.
Prominent candidates in the fray include veteran Congressleader Sheila Dikshit, Olympian boxer Vijender Singh, Union minister HarshVardhan, Atishi from AAP and her BJP rival cricketer-turned-politicianGautamGambhir.
Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjarare among the 223 candidates in fray in Haryana.
Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a sitting MLAof Congress from Rohtak district, is once again trying his luck to enter thelower House, this time from Sonipat. Earlier, Hooda had remained a four-time MPfrom Rohak parliamentary constituency.
Hooda’s son Deepender is seeking re-election for fourth termfrom Rohtak as Congress nominee.
Among other candidates, Union minister Birender Singh’s sonBrijendra Singh (BJP) and former chief minister BhajanLal’s grandsonBhavyaBishnoi (Congress), both political greenhorns, are contesting from theHisarLokSabha seat, whre they face sitting MP and leader of newly floated JJPDushyantChautala, grandson of former chief minister, O P Chautala.
Former Union minister KumariSelja and state Congress chiefAshok Tanwar are fighting from Ambala and Sirsa, respectively, for the party.
The ruling Trinamool Congress, the BJP, the Congress and theLeft Front constituents – the CPI(M), the CPI and the AIFB – are the maincontenders in West Bengal. In this phase, polling will be held in JangalMahal –the forested region of Bankura, West Midnapore, Jhargram and Purulia districts,which used to be a Maoist hotbed, during the erstwhile Left Front government.
In Jharkhand, state minister ChandraprakashChoudhary, formercricketer Kirti Azad and ex-chief minister MadhuKoda’s wife Gita are among the67 candidates whose fate will be sealed in the third phase of polls in thestate.
Polling will be held in Dhanbad, Giridih, Jamshedpur andSinghbhum (ST) seats, all won by the BJP in 2014.
Altogether, 66,85,401 voters, including 31,79,720 women and116 of the third gender, are eligible to exercise their franchise.
Four sitting MPs, including Union Agriculture Minister RadhaMohan Singh, are among the 127 candidates contesting in Bihar.
Amid tight security, polling will be held in eight LokSabhaseats – Sheohar, Valmiki Nagar, PashchimiChamparan, PurviChamparan, Siwan,Gopalganj, Maharajganj and Vaishali.Among the 127 candidates, 16 are women – eightin Vaishali, four in Siwan and one each in Sheohar, Maharajganj, PurviChamparanand Valmiki Nagar.